Driverless cars shaking up Ontario’s auto industry, warns minister

Ontario needs to become a leader in the emerging technology-based shake-up to the transportation sector, including driverless vehicles, electric cars and companies such as Uber, said Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca at a conference on “The Future of the Car.”

“Simply building more infrastructure — as important as it is— will not be enough,” he told the gathering of transportation planners and forecasters.

“Millenials are saying, ‘Actually I don’t want that car when I’m 16 years old. I’d prefer to have a cell phone and I want somebody to be the driver (rather) than me being the driver,” said organizer Martin Collier.

Among the questions being asked is, was whether automated vehicles would expedite carsharing and industries such as Uber.

“If we do go to that shared system amongst automated vehicles will people actually be paying for the service as a user pay? They won’t be owning cars but they’ll be paying for that service and can we also bundle the infrastructure cost into that cost so we get to road pricing and parking through the back door,” said Collier...